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Syllabus – Roles of Women and Men in Church and Home
Syllabus – the Roles of Women and Men in Church and Home
When building a house, the first thing is putting on the roof. Then building the walls under that. Third, you lay down the floor and foundation. Of course, if you want a basement, you dig that after everything else is built.
It doesn’t take a contractor to understand that is exactly the opposite of a builder’s plans. And yet, when studying the Bible, often that’s what we do unconsciously. We often start off with our conclusion (i.e. the roof) and then try to build the arguments (i.e. the foundation, etc.). That should be just as obviously wrong as the house illustration.
Planning any study must start at the bottom. That means the conclusion is the last part. It is hard when we already have opinions or have studied a topic before. If you are like me, sometimes one new piece of information helps everything come together…or fall away so that I must start all over again. This is the situation when Jesus said to the scribes and Pharisees “Judge with righteous judgment” (Jn.7:24).
One extreme in the study of the role of women and men, is starting with the revealed conclusion, that is the command. Too many begin with the command instead of studying the inspired reasons which includes the context.When reasons are not given, we obey because God said so; but again, always within the context. When reasons are given, we can better understand why God says what He does. For example, “though shalt not kill” is a command. We can conclude that killing here is defined by murder based upon God commanded the Israelites to go to war. We can also conclude why God says murder is sinful by searching for His inspired reasons:
Genesis 9:6 [HCSB] Whoever sheds man’s blood, his blood will be shed by man, for God made man in His image.
Even if God had never connected these two thoughts, He implied murder was wrong in the beginning when stating “let us make man in our image.” That’s why Cain sinned, even if there is not a recorded command, because it was not necessary. Cain killed someone made in God’s image. In that sense, murder is a foreshadowing of deicide, the murder of God’s ultimate image on earth, Jesus the Son of God.
This first extreme assumes “it says what it means and means what it says.” I agree with that tautology. The question is do we understand what it says and means? John 6:27 says, “Don’t work for the food that perishes but for the food that lasts for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal of approval on Him.” That means we must all quit our jobs, right?
What are the conclusions people start with?
One conclusion (or roof) is: 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 [HCSB] 34) the women should be silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak, but should be submissive, as the law also says. 35) And if they want to learn something, they should ask their own husbands at home, for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church meeting.
Another conclusion (or roof) is: 1 Timothy 2:11-12 [HCSB] 11) A woman should learn in silence with full submission. 12) I do not allow a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; instead, she is to be silent.
When we fail to see how writers construct their arguments, we fail to see what the real conclusion is. Ask yourself if you can obey a command if you don’t understand the command? Only in Proverbs – and not even every verse – is one verse designed to stand on its own. God’s context is everything or else our conclusion is nothing.
A second extreme is ignoring the inspired conclusion totally. The Biblical arguments and conclusions are: 1) everything prohibitive was cultural; 2) or controversial texts are not authentic. This extreme says, “God doesn’t have roles for men and women, only gifts”; 3) Paul contradicts himself because he grows in his positions on women.
A third extreme is related to the first. Some ignore the argument surrounding the inspired conclusion resulting in not allowing women to do what is not forbidden nor what is permitted. This extreme says, “Women have no role in the church. They need to sit down and shut up.” (yes that is a quote).
A fourth extreme is built on fear. People know what the conclusion is, but because of the “slippery slope” end up building a hedge around the law (to use a rabbinic technique). What many fail to realize is the slippery slope, slopes down in both directions!
To properly build the process will be time consuming and maybe not obvious to the eye of the unexperienced. Experience, expertise, can be unseen by those being taught. When I was working on a degree in Education (which I decided not to get), I had to take several education classes. Here is one broad observation; I was shocked to learn that to qualify to teach primary and secondary education, you must take classes on how to teach. That is not required for college professors! If you’ve taken any college courses you might have experienced the reality that college professors need to know their subject matter, but do not need to know how to teach. Here is a narrow observation from one class; I spent the entire semester thinking that, while the class was fun, I wasn’t learning. When exam time came, I was shocked at how well I did on the test because I was shocked at how much I had learned! I even went up to the teacher to apologize and explain my inner bad attitude.
Here is the process for this study and most every study (some will take less than a class; others more):
- Explain Broad Theological Procedure:
- Declarative Before Normative – Understand Interpretation before Application (i.e., Decode before Encode; Meant vs Means)
- Much of what is detailed below falls under the category of interpreting before applying by discovering the authors’ reasoning and purpose.
- An example is understanding that just because two authors use the same phrase or word, does not mean they use them synonymously. For example, in Romans “sons/children of God” refers to us being adopted into God’s family. However, in 1 John the same concept is used to refer to identity and behavior.
- Explain Narrow Theological Foundations: Trinity;Creation; Home; Culture
- My conclusions are based upon this four-fold foundation because each is presented within the contexts of the roles of men and women in the church. Each of these will be discussed further and, in more detail, as we go along.
- We all need to preface the discussion by first practicing self-examination regarding our knowledge and consciences. I will admit I have some answers, but not all.
- There are applications today not addressed inthe inspired writings.
- Then there are situations not directly addressed that I do and don’t know for sure, although I do know my comfort level.
- As a comparison, consider the eating of meats and how sometimes that was alright, sometimes not (1 Corinthians 8; 10:14-11:1).Paul would willingly submit while simultaneously would not be enslaved by the conscience of others. Don’t say, “I don’t like it, so you can’t do it.” Don’t say, “I like it and you can’t stop me.” Neither is brotherly love.
- This takes prayer to help in our own self-examination, which others cannot do for us.
- We will practice self-examination in another way.To do this we will look at two texts that are not directly related to the study of the role of women. Indirectly they apply which we will hopefully understand as helpful in any discussion. Those texts are John 7:21-24 and Matthew 15:1-9.
- We will briefly study cultures (including Honor Shame Culture) as they relate to Biblical interpretation and practice by looking at: 1) Cultures in which Christianity was introduced; 2) Specific cultures within the writings addressed; 3) Whether culture affects interpretation and practice, and if so, how?
- This will continue even more so when looking at specific texts.
- Culture does not determine rightness nor wrongness of God’s positive and negative commands. Culture can decide in some cases the observance (application) of that command. Dress is an example. In some cultures,it is indecent for a woman to show bodily form (Hinduism) publicly. It is proper, however, in America for a woman to wear a belt that shows her waistline. I will discuss this motivating factor again later concerning the role of subjection.
- We are going to look at Paul’s foundation argument in 1 Corinthians 11 based upon how the Father and Son work together as equals yet with different roles. This involves a study of the Trinity because it is used in the discussion of men and women’s roles.
- We will look at the foundation argument; that will take us back to gospels, and then later look at the application Paul makes to the roles of men and women in the church. This will introduce to us the concepts of ontological equality and functional (or, economical) differences(worth vs work; equal value vs different roles.)
- Two-fold purpose: 1) To understand Paul’s argument (foundation); 2) To deconstruct fallacious arguments.
- We are going to look at Paul’s foundation arguments in 1 Corinthians 14 and 1 Timothy 2 which goes back to “the Law” and creation story (which I will argue is the same).
- We will only look at the foundation argument which will take us back to Genesis 1-3 for our study. We will apply here the concepts of ontological equality and functional differences; or equal value versus different roles.
- We are going to look at both liberating and restrictive passages dealing with women to get the full picture the Holy Spirit is revealing. This will take us to various texts in both the Old and New revelations before discussing 1 Corinthians 11,14, and 1 Timothy 2.
- Because we have built the foundation and walls,we will be ready to finish our “house” by putting on the roof. This is where we will apply what we have learned to 1 Corinthians 11,14 and 1 Timothy 2 (and surprisingly 1 Peter 3) which will enable us to better exegete the text.
- Other arguments and passages not introduced in any of the above sections will be discussed afterwards if needed and wanted.
- Finally, we will discuss specific situations or actions that anyone has questions concerning.
As evident by the above procedural, we hopefully will have an in-depth discussion and discovery. This will expand beyond the topic of the roles of women and men in the church and family by helping us build foundations for other studies.
Using the example of a house is Biblically fitting:
1 Timothy 3:14-15 [HCSB] 14) I write these things to you, hoping to come to you soon. 15) But if I should be delayed, I have written so that you will know how people ought to act in God’s household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth.
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